73-Year-Old Man Jailed After Shooting Robber

Around 3 a.m. Wednesday, 73-year-old Abraham Venson woke up to an alarm company alerting him to someone breaking into his shed, the same shed that had been broken into months ago.

Venson went outside his home with a gun in hand. As the two robbers ran from his home, Venson saw the second man reach for his waistband. That’s when Venson fired his weapon, striking the man.

Although someone was breaking into his shed, Venson was arrested for the shooting. Under Louisiana law, it is unlawful for you to fire a weapon at someone if your life is not at risk. It doesn’t matter if they’re stealing personal property or not.

“What the law is designed to do is make sure we don’t have vigilantism,” said legal analyst Robert Jenkins. “The thing about that is I know it sounds reasonable if someone is stealing your car and going down the street you should be able to shoot at them, but you can’t because the idea is that you can replace the property but you can’t replace human life.”

Venson was charged with aggravated bettery and held on a $10,000 bond, something neighbors felt was unfair.

Beth Baumann is a public relations professional in Northern Idaho. Beth is a campaign veteran who has worked on numerous state and federal elections. In 2014, she was the Communications Assistant for the American Conservative Union, where she helped plan and execute media relations strategies for CPAC 2014. She is an avid Second Amendment supporter and advocate and loves fishing in her free time. You can follow her on Twitter at @eb454.
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